1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image analyzing apparatus and an image analyzing method that are utilized for such processing as the image analyzing processing of images of samples such as microbes and cells.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the various kinds of tests performed in the field of biochemistry, cells of animals and plants and microbes are cultured under variety types of conditions, thereby observing the degree of their change and growth associated with a lapse of time. For example, when observing, as observation objects, portions that grow gradually such as a mycelium of a cell, it becomes necessary to perform an operation of tracing the growing portions with a lapse of time and constituting the data on the portions from the recorded observation result thereof. Conventionally, such an operation has been almost entirely dependent on the manpower. Namely, the person taking charge of the experiment has carried out the following operation: The person observes the cell by a visual inspection within the microscope""s field of view and, by focusing attention on the observation object portions such as the mycelium, constitutes and records the data on the necessary items. Also, in the case of carrying out the analysis by utilizing the image processing, taking advantage of a luminance of the image for the analysis, the analysis has been performed by providing a threshold value to the light and shade of the luminance. Otherwise, the analysis has been performed that is based on an edge detection of the image.
The manpower-dependent observing operations like this, however, are troublesome operations that necessitate so much labor and time. Accordingly, the observing operations have resulted in a lowering in the efficiency of the whole experimental operation, and at the same time have imposed an excessive operational burden on the person in charge of the experiment. Also, when constituting the data from the observation result, the variation is likely to occur in the resultant data configured, depending on the experience and the degree of proficiency of the respective persons in charge of the observation. Consequently, there has also existed a problem that it is difficult to ensure a reliability of the data. Also, in the case of carrying out the analysis by utilizing the image processing, there have existed problems that, when the analysis is performed with a higher resolution, the calculation time is increased and the analysis itself is deteriorated by the noise.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an image analyzing apparatus and an image analyzing method that make it possible to analyze images of samples such as microbes and cells at a high speed and with an excellent efficiency as well as with a high reliability.
The present invention is characterized by an image analyzing apparatus and an image analyzing method that include
an image inputting member for inputting an image to be analyzed,
a frequency converting member for performing a frequency conversion toward the image inputted by the image inputting member, and
a member for outputting, based on a conversion result, an analysis result of the image inputted from the image inputting member, the conversion result being obtained by the frequency converting member, wherein features of the image are extracted by frequency-converting horizontal direction data and vertical direction data of the image and by utilizing value of a converted component of each frequency band in a horizontal direction, a vertical direction, or an oblique direction.
Also, the present invention provides an image analyzing apparatus and an image analyzing method that include
a band dividing member for frequency-converting cell image data so as to perform a band-division of a frequency component into a high-frequency-side frequency component and a low-frequency-side frequency component that contains a direct current component, and
a feature extracting member for extracting a feature portion of a cell from feature-extracting intermediate data created using at least the high-frequency-side frequency component.